Music

S. Epps & E. James

s.eppse.james

Two of the progressive soul scene’s most promising talents, the “stellar” Stacey Epps and the “solar” Everett James have joined forces and been blessing Europe with their beautiful music ; Black Athena caught up with the pair to get the inside word.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you both grew up and what gave you your initial musical direction? E – I grew up in a small town in North Carolina, an eclectic little place and when I was growing up I used to go with my dad to his band practices and hang around and learn the trade. S – Well my father was in the military so we moved pretty much every year and I can’t really pinpoint an exact place where I’m from. I always loved music but it wasn’t until late high school that I actually got on stage and felt that love; I had my little rhymes and I remember I was so nervous I had to have a drink to get up there!

Everett you had an album back in 2007 called “Life” did that receive an official release? It actually wasn’t released; I guess you’d say it was a labor of love in a sense – everything about that album was independent, even the way in which I wrote it was a part of my journey, so it was real personal in a way that a lot of music isn’t now – I didn’t think too much – I didn’t think about a single I just thought about my life; it’s real personal when you put your life into your music and kind of exploit it in a way, which you have to when you’re dealing with labels where they can think of it only as a product; when you deal with it as an artist it takes a life of its own!

Stacey, you also released “The Awakening”, can you tell us about the concept of the album? Well I’d been working on a lot of collaborations and I’d had an album called “Soul Uprising” which I did with Little Sci’, and I just really wanted to do something on my own like a solo album and so I started working with Apex and we have a really good chemistry with music… and so we started making a record after the Sisters in Rhyme tour and I called it “The Awakening” because I felt like that was what was going on at the time; I was coming into myself, still constantly learning but coming into a sound and being able to carry a whole record.

“Floatin” got picked up by Gilles Peterson for the most recent Brownswood comp, were you excited at the prospect of being exposed to a bigger audience by that? Yeah that was so cool, I have so much respect for Gilles as a DJ , Tastemaker, just an “ear” you know? When I sent him the song he just really liked it so I was like “dope!” because when someone like that likes your music… plus I got to see Brownswood for real when I was in London, and Gilles was really cool so now I just wanna study for a while and elevate – get my skills up!

And during your European tour you made a brief stop off in Thessaloniki – how was that? It was cool man! We had a great time, the place is beautiful, and we performed in this little square where people could gather. I don’t know if people really got it though, but it was cool to do and we also met the mayor!